Seeing Perseus elevate the topic to the level of "believing in Athena" with just a few words, the Heroes present, including Asclepius and Jason, were all a bit displeased.
The Greek World was still a polytheistic era, with various gods walking the earth, interacting with humans, falling in love, and hating each other. Although the worship of Athena was the most widespread, many of the Heroes here were demigods. They would certainly represent their divine fathers or mothers more than Athena.
Furthermore, many of Athena's actions, under Ares' deliberate guidance, had also become known to frontline Heroes like Heracles, and they disliked them. Heracles himself had a blood feud with Athena and could not accept her.
However, Heracles endured it. He watched the group leave, standing silently without speaking. Seeing that Heracles showed no reaction, Asclepius and Jason naturally said nothing more.
After the Heroes departed, Heracles and Perseus approached Jason. Perseus raised an eyebrow at Jason and Asclepius and asked:
"How about it? Can the two of us board the ship now?"
"Yes, you can," Jason nodded, then said, "But Perseus, you must promise not to bring up the issue of faith on the Argo again. The Heroes on this ship come from all directions, and they believe in various gods. For example, the one beside me, you remember him, Asclepius, he is the son of Apollo. You cannot force them to believe in Athena, otherwise, I will kick you off the ship."
Perseus opened his mouth, and Ares still wanted to manipulate him to continue stirring up trouble, but Athena's voice timely sounded in his mind:
"Perseus, listen to Jason."
"Okay, I understand," Perseus nodded, promising Jason, "I promise not to bring up this matter actively."
Listening to Perseus's promise, Jason felt a bit annoyed for some reason, because Perseus now looked less like he was making a promise to him, the captain of the Argo, and more like he was making a promise to some distant entity.
However, annoyance aside, Perseus was still his and Asclepius's fellow disciple. With this layer of friendship, Jason couldn't possibly refuse him boarding the ship; otherwise, he would be letting down their nurturing teacher, Chiron.
Therefore, Jason and Asclepius tacitly set Perseus aside and began to focus on their other "fellow disciple," Heracles.
Compared to Perseus, both of them didn't have a deep impression of Heracles. Although this fellow disciple was very strong, he had always been overshadowed by Perseus in martial arts before Perseus switched to Hecate. He was also one of the Heroes who were chased by Perseus in the sunset.
Soon after Perseus left, Teacher Chiron quickly separated them from Heracles for instruction, fearing that Heracles, unable to control his strength, might accidentally kill them. Therefore, after that, the Heroes gradually saw less of each other.
Later, Heracles was the first to complete his studies and graduate, leaving Chiron's tutelage to return to Thebes and begin his achievements. As they slowly grew up, besides Jason and Asclepius still having some contact, the other Heroes also went their separate ways.
"Are you the legendary 'monster,' Heracles?"
Jason cupped his chin and circled Heracles several times, occasionally reaching out curiously to touch his equipment, while Asclepius followed beside him, looking at Heracles's body with some astonishment, murmuring as he observed:
"Such a perfect body, how did you grow it?"
Heracles did not stop Jason and Asclepius's impolite actions. While the two of them observed Heracles with curious expressions, Heracles was also very interested in observing Jason, his future "friend." However, from his current observation, he only thought Jason was a frivolous person with a bit of petty cleverness.
"I never thought so before, but now you really seem incredibly strong."
After circling Heracles a few times, Jason couldn't help but exclaim:
"Excellent, excellent. From now on, you will be this captain's bodyguard and crew member, serving this captain faithfully until death."
"Crew member?" Heracles couldn't help but be stunned upon hearing this, then retorted, "Aren't you afraid of me? I thought your condition for me to board the ship would be to lock my hands with iron chains or take away my weapons."
"Would that be useful to you?" Jason countered, "Besides, if you don't join as a crew member, what will you be? Our Argo doesn't keep idlers."
Heracles was silent for a moment, then said, "I thought you would treat me as a monster."
"What monster? They just don't understand your value," Asclepius looked at Heracles with fanaticism, muttering softly, "This body of yours is clearly the best material... Ahem, my apologies."
Hearing their somewhat impolite words, Heracles, far from getting angry, slowly revealed a faint smile on his face.
"It's been a long time since I've heard such harsh words," he said. "I vaguely remember the last time was when my teacher was scolding me. Jason, Asclepius."
"What is it?" Jason and Asclepius replied.
Heracles extended his hand to them, proactively asking, "If you don't mind, could you... be my friends?"
Asclepius readily grasped Heracles's hand and said, "As long as you're willing to let me study your wounds and test medicines for me in the future, then not to mention friends, I'd even work for you."
However, Jason looked at Heracles's hand, and for some reason, he suddenly showed a look of surprise and fear.
"What's wrong?" Heracles frowned slightly, sighing inwardly at the same time.
It seemed that his reputation as a monster had, in the end, caused fear in the heart of this so-called "friend."
Just as he was thinking this and feeling a bit disappointed in Jason, he heard Jason ask suspiciously:
"Hey, Heracles, you wouldn't happen to be... interested in me and Asclepius, would you?"
"Interested?" Heracles was slightly taken aback. "We're all men, why would I be interested in you?"
"Oh, so the rumors I heard before, that you're an old homosexual, are false?" Jason said, stroking his chin. "They said your attendants are always very handsome men, from Iolaus to Abderus, and recently you even adopted a beautiful boy, Hylas, as your foster son. And, they said that Iolaus, who was with you, was ruined by you, his expression was blank and his eyes dull for the last two years, and he reacted very slowly when spoken to, suffering unknown torments from you... Are all these false?"
"Of course they're false!" Heracles roared in anger. "How could I possibly dare... possibly lay a hand on Iolaus?!"
"Then why did Iolaus not appear later? Wasn't he ruined by you?" Jason interjected.
"That's because..." Heracles looked up at the small bird circling in the sky above him, then replied, "I can't tell you about this matter. In short, Iolaus and I are not that kind of relationship."
"Heh, I understand," Jason clenched his fist and bumped knuckles with Heracles, then quickly hid behind Asclepius, poking his head out and shouting, "Being friends with you is fine, but I'm sorry, no lovers. I like women!"